The Rabbit in the Storm

            I enjoy watching the wildlife that comes near our home on a regular basis.  Birds are regular visitors to the bird feeders at our home.   Lately, we have been having some rabbits daring to come out of the nearby woods to nibble  on the grass in our yard.   I seem to notice the rabbits  often in the late afternoon and early evening as day slowly becomes night.   The other evening, I noticed something else outside our home:  an approaching thunderstorm.  There was the sound of clapping  thunder nearby and the sight of dark, ominious clouds and lightning flashing across the sky.  Despite it all, I noticed that rabbit was calmly nibbling on the grass in our yard.    While the television warned of a severe thunderstorm and humans sought shelter, that rabbit seemed to be oblivious to it all.   While I am the first to admit that I am certainly not an expert on animals or rabbits,  I wonder if maybe that rabbit knew that the same Creator God that made him also was the Creator God of the storm and it felt peace and serenity in that.

It happens everyday.   I encounter people who fret and worry about something in their life.   Sometimes, that person is me.  They are worrying and wondering about things big and small as  storm clouds are present or  forming.  Perhaps it would do people like me and you well to follow the example of that rabbit knowing that all will be well in the storm because God is with us.  You see, the one that creates the storm also makes and creates us.   Have a joy-filled week. --  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   God,  you are the creator of all creatures and all things.  You have created us and called us good.   Help us to live with the serenity to know that you are with us in stormy times and sunny times.  Help us to trust in your all sufficient grace; through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

When Things Are the Worst, The Church is at Its Best

            Across the eastern seaboard of this country and in the Bahamas, people are still recovering as I write this  from Hurricane Dorian.   For some people, it will be a slow recovery as they seek to rebuild their homes or rebuild their lives after serious injury or the loss of loved ones.   All those affected by Hurricane Dorian surely need our prayers and our support.

            This week, many will remember September 11, 2001.    I am reminded of  that day 18 years ago when lives were lost and property was destroyed when terrorists used planes as weapons in New York City, the Washington DC area, and the Pennsylvania countryside.     As one who saw first hand in the Fall 2001 in New York City the damage caused by this national tragedy, today I will again pause and reflect on those events.  

            One of the things that unites the events of September 11, 2001 and the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian is this:     such tragedy brings out the best in people.    I recall on the Sunday  after the September 11 attacks, the church that I had the honor to pastor was having a blood drive.   The drive had already been scheduled long before the September 11 attacks.   In the aftermath of those attacks, the church overflowed with blood donors wanting to do something to help thinking their blood might be needed in New York City and other places.       I am certain in these days many people will give a donation of monies, water, and the like to help those along the coast just as they did last year when some of the same coastal areas received an unfriendly visit from Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence.   Others will prepare in the coming days to go to the affected areas to serve as volunteers to help out.

            The church is at its best when it sets aside petty bickering or theological differences and works together to help those in need.   It is in those times I most fully see Christ in the work of the Church.   I invite you to join me in prayer and support for those who are and will be recovering from Hurricane Dorian.    Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   God,  we pray for all those feeling the effects  of Hurricane Dorian.   We especially pray for those who know the pain of loss of loved ones, loss of their homes, and loss of their way of life.   Help us to be healing and helping instruments in these days;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  

A Visit to the Skirted Heifer

            While I was in Colorado in August,  I ate most of my meals at places that I do not eat when home in the Carolinas.   While I might visit a chain restaurant when I am at home,  I try to deliberately visit eating places that I cannot eat at when I am at home.  One of those places I ate at in Colorado Springs was named the Skirted Heifer.   I ate there at the invitation of my daughter, Ginger, who shared that it had been featured on a show on a Food Network cable show.   I know what a skirt is, and I know what a heifer is.  However, I do not normally connect the two.

            I soon discovered that one had the option to order their hamburger at the restaurant “skirted”.   Curiosity got the best of me and I ordered my burger “skirted” even though I was not sure what that would mean.  When I got my order, I soon discovered that a “skirted” burger had cheese that not only covered the burger but covered the exterior of the hamburger bun.     Some of you will remember a national hamburger chain many years ago that featured an elderly woman asking  “where’s the beef?” when she got her burger.    At the Skirted Heifer, there was no need to ask where is the beef or where is the cheese.   The beef covered the entire bun and the cheese was bigger than the bun.    I am not certain that a nutritionist would be happy about the amount of cheese I had on my burger that evening, but I was pleased that I got much more than I had expected.   It was perhaps not so good for my diet, but it was good for a consumer who wants to feel like they got more than they ordered.

            Sometimes, a message from God and a promise of God shows up in the most unusual place.   Such was the case as I left the Skirted Heifer on that day.   I was reminded of this passage from Ephesians 3: 20-21 that says:  

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

            God gives us more than we ask or imagine in all sorts of ways.  While a restaurant might give us lots of cheese on our burger, God  gives us blessing and  abundance every day.   Thanks be to God.  Have a joy-filled week. --  Pastor Randy Wall 

Prayer:   God,  we give you thanks for the abundance that you give us always.  Give us an open spirit to what you offer us in this day and in this life;  through Jesus Christ our  Lord.  Amen. 

Come Closer

            I shared last week about a trip that Ann and I made to Colorado a few weeks ago.  As I stated last week, the trip had two main purposes.   First,  I was attending and providing leadership at a national meeting of rural United Methodist church leaders.   The second purpose for our time there was to visit with one of our daughters and her family who live in Colorado.  There were people from all over the country in the meeting of rural United Methodist church leaders. 

Among them was a man named Norman.   He is a Native American and pastor who lives in the “Four Corners” area (a region where the states of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado come together).    When I told Norman I was from North Carolina, he shared with me about his days in the U.S. Army as a member of the 82^nd Airborne which is based at Fort Bragg (near Fayetteville).     Norman shared with us an interesting fact about the Navajo people.  In the native tongue of the Navajo, the term that they use for the word “welcome” literally means in English to “come closer”.   He shared that in days past that the homes of the Navajo did not have a door because they wanted people to feel welcome to “come closer”.

“Come closer” and welcome.   What a contrast to the world where many of us live today.   While we might know the details of friends on a social media site like Facebook, some do not even know the names of the people next door or on their street.   Many come home from work, drive their  cars into a garage, and never come out to see or speak to their  neighbors.    

            “Come closer”.    God wants us to come closer.      In Revelation 3:20, we read:

²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

In the life of the early Church, you only ate with persons that you wanted to have a close relationship with.     God wants us to come closer to Him.  He is standing at the door of our heart  wanting that each and every day.   Will we  say yes!   Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   God, forgive us for the times we have kept you at a distance and wanted you to be a part of our lives on Sundays but not every day of the week.   We give you thanks for how you came close to the world through the life of your Son, Jesus Christ.     Help us to live in a deeper relationship with Him.   Amen. 

Rocky Mountain High

            Ann and I had the pleasure a few weeks ago to travel to Colorado.   The trip had two main purposes.   First,  I was attending and providing leadership at a national meeting of rural United Methodist church leaders.   The second purpose for our time there was to visit with one of our daughters and her family who live in Colorado.   I have only been to Colorado a few times in my life, but have been overwhelmed on each of those visits at the beauty and grandeur of the Rocky Mountains.     As  I recall, Katherine Bates was so moved by the beauty of the mountains when she visited there that she was inspired to write that well known song,  “O beautiful, for spacious skies; for amber waves of grain.”

            As I visited those Rocky Mountains I was moved and inspired by their wondrous beauty.  Yet, there was a moment I  realized this:  as beautiful as the mountains may be, they are created by a God who is even greater.   Psalm 90: 1-2 puts it this way:  

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    throughout all generations.
² Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the whole world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

What a great and glorious God we serve. Truly, this is “my Fathers world.”    Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   God, we are amazed at the majesty and wonder of the great and small in your creation.  In the tiny hummingbird and in the grand mountain, we realize that you are God.  Give us a heart to see the many ways you manifest your glory each day;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Moses' Mother and Back to School

            A new school year is close.   In the next few days and weeks,  parents will be taking their young adult children to colleges and universities far away and near for their freshman year.   Other parents will be dropping off their children for the first time at their pre-school or their first taste of elementary school perhaps with a  lump in their throat or a tear in their eye.  Ann and I are at an age when our children are engaging in those experiences with our grandchildren. 

            There is a story in the early chapters of Exodus about Moses, the great leader of the Israelites from their days in bondage and slavery until their time wandering in the wilderness.   Moses’ mother had bore her son, Moses, and hid her son from the scrutiny of King Pharoah and the Egyptians.   Realizing she could not hide her son Moses anymore, Moses’ mother coats the outside of a basket with tar and puts her son in the basket and into the river.   If you read the story in Exodus 2, you know the outcome:   the baby Moses is discovered by Pharoah’s  daughter who raises Moses as her own child.    What Exodus 2 does not tell us is how Moses’s mother felt in the interim from the time she placed him in the basket on the river until he was discovered by Pharoah’s daughter.      

            I believe that story of Moses in the basket on the Nile River is a fitting metaphor of what it is like when a parent or grandparent sees their  child go down the hall to a preschool class… into the door for their first day or kindergarten… or waves goodbye as their parents leave their college dormitory.     We trust that young adult child or that young child as they float on the river of life as we place them into the hands of God and into the hands of educators.     

            I remember years ago a woman in my congregation telling me about the time that her mother in law saw her new grandchild for the first time.    As her mother in law gazed at her beautiful new grandson, Norma said the sentimentality of the moment was broken when her mother in law exclaimed,   “Norma, you need to start letting go of your son right now.”    The life of every parent is filled with letting go bit by bit, day by day, as they walk down the aisle to be married… as they walk down the hall to their dorm floor… and as they head into their kindergarten class trusting that child into the hands of God even as Moses’s mother did long ago.   Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall 

Prayer:   Lord and God, we pray for the safety and care of those in our schools as a new school year approaches and for their families.   Remind us, Lord, that  you are always near and that we can always trust in you;  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.    

"The Judgment Free Zone"

            There is a business in my community that I visit on a regular basis that advertises itself as a “judgment free zone”.   Perhaps you have the same business in your community since it is a part of a nationwide chain.   The business with this motto states that it  does not make judgments about your worth and that it encourages its clients to do the same. 

I have been a part of leadership in a local church all of my adult life and for much of my life.   I surely wish that the local church was a “judgement free zone”.   I admit that sometimes it is not.  Sometimes, church members and church leaders alike seem to ooze condemnation and criticism on people for what they do and do not do under the banner that they are doing it in the name of the Lord.   When people are the recipient of such judgment, they often are not only hurt but alienated from the church.   I mourn that fact. 

 There is a verse of scripture that relates to the elusive quest for the Church to be a “judgement free zone”.   This verse is from the words of Jesus:   “Judge not lest you be judged”.   This verse does not mean that people should not have values.    Though most people do not regularly  consider what are their values, they guide many of the actions that we do everyday.     Likewise, this verse does not mean that people do not have opinions.    As one friend told me years ago:   “Opinions are like belly buttons;  everyone has got one”.     Your opinions influence the food your eat, the clothes you wear, and how you spend your money each and every day.  

“Judge not lest you be judged”.   I believe that part of what  that verse says is that it is not the job of anyone to judge the godly stature of anyone else.   That task, my friends, belongs to God.  It is God’s responsibility to determine the righteous or unrighteous standing of anyone and from what I can tell God is doing a pretty good job of it and does not need my help.

Oh, I wish that business I visit from time to time would  not be the only “judgement free zone” in my community.   I wish that the Church could be also.   You see, when you get right down to it, the Church of Jesus Christ is filled with sinners who are saved by the grace of God found in Jesus Christ.   Come join me at Church on Sunday, and lets seek to make it a “judgment free zone”.   Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   O God, we praise you and give you thanks that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  As we have so freely been given  grace, let us offer the same to others;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.